


The one before me

by Horrorstan42



Category: Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008), The Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Banner Angst, Dark Tony Stark, Dehumanization, I love nick fury so fucking much man this is a problem, I really hope I add thor at some point, Implied/Referenced Torture, Medical Experimentation, Merchant of Death Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Avengers (2012), Redemption, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark isn't as dark as i though he was going to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22639384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Horrorstan42/pseuds/Horrorstan42
Summary: A different scientist becomes a hulk before Bruce, and he and Tony end up experimenting on her while working for Ross. But the tensions this brings up rip them apart, Bruce goes down the path that ends up turning him into the hulk and Bruce is forced to face his past actions. But can he and Tony repair their friendship and help her, or is it too late?
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Original Female Character(s), Bruce Banner & Thaddeus Ross, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Thaddeus Ross & Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Testing testing 123

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first fanfiction! Please give me some advice, i have no clue what i'm doing. Hope ya'll enjoy this! I'll be updating every weekend, but probably more then one chapter a weekend.

“Bruce! Bruce! Come see what I just got!”  
Bruce wrinkled his nose, trying to ignore his lab partner to get a few more readings recorded. His efforts were in vain, though, as Tony burst through the door of the lab and started tugging him off the lab instruments. Bruce turned to look at the other man, a scowl on his face.  
“For God’s sake Tony, I’m working. You can’t just drag me away!”  
Tony laughed, an impish smile covering his face.  
“Just come see, Bruce! It’s for your research! You’ll love it!”  
Bruce groaned but allowed himself to be led away. He was curious, after all. Had Tony gotten him a new gamma emitter? That would be helpful, but not nearly as exciting as Tony was making this out to be. Something else, then. Maybe a particle accelerator?  
He was so lost in his thoughts that he hardly noticed Tony had stopped in front of a glass wall. He peered in but could see nothing apart from blackness.  
“The lights are off, genius man” Tony said, reaching up to flick them on. Looking again, though, Bruce was no more illuminated. The room seemed to be a cell of some kind, with just the very basics in it.  
And, surprisingly, a woman. She was lying on the bed, unmoving. Was this a joke? Leaning closer to the glass, Bruce could see she was asleep and stark naked. He turned to Tony, frowning.  
“What on earth is this? Is she a prostitute? Even for you, this is immature, Tony.” He started to leave.  
“No, Bruce! Come back here! It’s not a prostitute! It’s the first gamma-enhanced human!”  
Bruce spun around. A gamma enhanced human? But he was the lead researcher on that! Had someone gone around him? He glanced back at the woman. She didn’t look even remotely enhanced. Could it be a mental enhancement? And why was she in the cell? Tony was blathering on, mildly oblivious as usual.  
“It happened in a bomb test gone wrong. Turns out that was why we got hired, actually. Bomb exploded; bunch of scientists caught in the blast. All died, except this intern here. Been the property of the military for past 2 years, but they thought it might help our research.”  
Bruce sucked in a breath.  
“Tony, what do you mean that this woman was the property of the military? Because you better not be saying what I think you are…”  
“Jesus, Bruce! I forgot how much of a hippie you can be sometimes. Sure, it was human, but its not anymore. Here, look.”  
Bruce glanced down at the image. It was of a humongous gray green beast, its face filled with rage, throwing a tank at some soldiers. THROWING a tank.  
“Is this… her?”  
“Yeah, sometimes. It can shapeshift, apparently. Ross wanted to make it a super solider, tried to train it and all, but it wasn’t working. So, we get to experiment on it now. It can’t die, actually. Doesn’t regenerate quickly in this form, but the gamma powers the brain activity even when the heart can’t. So, you can open it up on your own, no doctors needed.” Tony caught Bruce’s expression.  
“Oh, yeah. That wall’s not actually glass. Special material Ross got to keep it in. It’s drugged now, too. From transport. We’ll be able to keep it unsedated if you want, though, to observe its behavior. It’s got a shock collar that prevents transformation and can knock it out.”  
“Tony. You want me to cut open this woman, without special training, or anesthetic. Do you really see no problem with that?”  
“Bruce. Look at that thing. It’s not a woman. It’s an animal. Do you anesthetize your mice and rats pre experimentation? It’s no more human than them.” Bruce sighed.  
“Those mice didn’t used to be a human intern, Tony. And those mice don’t, well, look human.” Tony groaned and threw up his hands.  
“I’ve made robots that do, though, and you’ve had no problem with chopping them up willy-nilly. You’ve dissected humans before as well, isn’t this the same? Some of them probably used to be interns. Get your science hat on, Bruce, this isn’t time to be all squeamish.”  
“She’s not a cadaver, Tony. I just don’t know if I can cut into her.”  
“FINE. If you want me to do the dirty work, that’s just dandy. I expect some help at least though!”  
“Alright. I’ll get some initial readings today. This should help stabilize the bomb, at the very least.” He left, hearing Tony grumbling about lack of appreciation behind him.  
********  
About a month into studying the woman, Bruce was starting to doubt Tony’s assertation that everything human in her was gone. He still hadn’t joined Tony’s dissection sessions. But when he drew her blood, she looked at him with an intelligence that was more than animal. And she didn’t run from him when he went in and had started to simply offer up her arm for him to draw blood. With Tony, though, she would cower in a corner of her cell if he even walked by. She wouldn’t run, though. Or hide. She would just let him pull her out again, as though she knew attempts at evasion would fail. Yes, she didn’t talk, but he’d started to read Ross’s files on her and that shit would inspire selective mutism in Tony.  
But he wasn’t sure, and so was still going into the lab, and analyzing all of his and Tony’s data. And pretending that this was all fine, that they weren’t keeping a possible human prisoner. And yeah, he felt like shit about it, even through all his uncertainty. But what could he do? There’s not a huge demand for scientist who are utterly lacking in social skills in teaching positions, and he didn’t have enough publications to get a purely research job. Plus, if he quit without reason, Ross could manage to get him blacklisted in an instant.  
An odd sound startled him out of his thoughts. He groaned and pushed off the table, assuming it was Tony coming to bug him about some asinine shit. When a minute past and the sounds continued with no Tony appearing, he decided to go investigate.  
He walked down the hall, following the sound to the woman’s room. And he realized, with a start, that the sound was coming from her. It was an odd sound, a mix of choking and sobbing. It was the first noise he had heard her make since she arrived. And it filled him with more guilt then he ever realized a human could feel.  
He crouched down by the glass to get on eye level with her, vaguely hoping to comfort her. She looked up and gasped, jumping backwards. He winced.  
“Hey, hey. It’s okay, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m just ... just going to back up now.” He shuffled backwards, careful to avoid startling her again. “Look, I don’t know if you can understand me, but I’m sorry. I’ll get you…something, I guess. You want a toy maybe? I’ve got some fidgets in the lab, I’ll go grab one.”  
She hadn’t broken eye contact during this whole rant. He swallowed and backed out of the room, feeling a rush of relief as soon as he could no longer see her. He walked up to the lab and quickly grabbed one of those squishy balls Tony liked and a Rubik cube. He walked back to the room and pushed them through the door. She didn’t move, and barely glanced at them. He looked at her for a moment, then sighed and walked back to the lab. What was he thinking? Tony was most likely right; she was more animal then human. She had had no reaction to his words at all. What on earth would she do with a Rubik cube? Lick it? At least Tony was away for a few weeks now, Bruce could get the toys back before he returned. He shoved the whole incident out of his mind and returned to the data set in front of him.  
Bruce was startled out of his science again by a buzz from his phone.  
_Tony: BRucE! R just told me he wants new dissection data by tmr. can u get it?  
Bruce: wtf tony? You know I hate that shit. Can’t u do it?  
Tony: Um, no?  
Tony: bc im at a conference in dc?  
Tony: and I haven’t made teleportation tech yet?  
Bruce: Ughh, fine. What does he want?  
Tony: I’ll send u the file.  
_ Bruce opened the file. And groaned. Ross wanted tissue samples from most of her major organs. Lungs, liver, stomach, skin, reproductive tissue. Undiluted samples, too. So there was no possibility of just drugging the shit out of her. He checked the reports on her. Now would work. She hadn’t been drugged in a few days and hadn’t eaten yet that day. He might as well get this over with.  
He prepared a table in the dissection room and slipped on a white coat. He grabbed some padded restraints and a gurney and went to her cell. She was still huddled in the corner. He marched in, trying to be bold. She’s just an animal after all, just an animal, god this must have been what the Nazis thought, don’t think that don’t think that just an animal. No more thinking or conscious then the millions of lab rats he had dissected. No more human then a cadaver. He shocked her limp with the collar and strapped her onto the table. She’s just an animal after all, ignore that look that seems almost like betrayal in her eyes, she’s just an animal. And Bruce picked up the scalpel and held it over her and god she was so fucking young and looked so human. But he started to make the first cut anyways, because goddamit he needed this job and what would Tony say. And he ignored the whimpers and tears because he’d already started and stopping now was pointless. And it wasn’t until he was almost done that he noticed the wetness on his own face. The tears that had been coming the whole damn time. And it wasn’t until he had rolled her back to her cell and was once again alone in the labs that he let himself break down into sobs.


	2. We can't go on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce and Tony have some disagreements

Days later, Bruce still couldn’t erase her expression from his brain. He knew Tony would return that night, but he still hadn’t taken back the rubik cube. He hadn’t even been able to walk past her room. And he’d written and subsequently deleted about 15 different letters to Ross. Because there was no way that that expression was animal. No way that those sobs where just animal sobs. Sure, part of her brain may have died but he wouldn’t preform surgery without anesthesia on mentally handicapped people! He had to pull out of this project. He had to.  
He stared at his latest email draft. This was probably his last chance. Tony would never let him send this. Tony would never believe him about her expression. And he’d smile and charm Bruce into staying for just a few more days and Bruce couldn’t let that happen. He knew this was wrong. He’d known this was wrong and he couldn’t pretend anymore. And so, he swallowed hard and pressed send.  
******  
Tony burst into the lab.  
“What the hell Bruce? I’m all for pissing off Ross but come on! He’s taking back the test subject, saying that you are clearly not to be trusted with such important experiments! What did you say to him?”  
“Tony. You know as well as I do that that girl was human. What we were doing was inexcusable. I had to speak out.”  
“And so, you chose to email Ross? Sure, some humanity might have been left in her, but you read the damn files of what Ross was doing to her! We were the best she was gonna get. And you, so high on your own moral superiority, just sent her back to Ross’s torture chamber!”  
“What would you rather me do, Tony? Call the New York Times? Expose top secret DOD plans and land in jail? Or in a fucking black site? Keep experimenting on some kid who could have been in the lab coats with us if her life went slightly differently?”  
“Oh, what, now you’re all practical? Tell me this, why the fuck not just quit if you’re so uncomfortable with this? Honestly, why even stay for as long as you have? Leave me and this lab and start your own damn research project!”  
“Start my own research project? Tony, you are so encased in the protection of your name and your company that you have no fucking clue what the rest of us have to deal with! I never wanted to help build weapons and super solider serums! I want to use the power of gamma for peace! But the only damn way a physicist can get a job in this godforsaken country is working with the army, and that means working with Ross and his idiotic super soldiers.”  
“The power of gamma for peace? What are you, some hippy college student? You’re an adult now, Bruce, start acting like it. There will never be peace on earth, and the best way you can protect people is by making sure that American hegemony remains in place. It’s not perfect but it’s the best you can get outside of pipe dreams.”  
“The best we can get? Tell that to the parents of children killed by your bombs. Tell that to the people who’s democratically elected leaders we assassinated. Tell that to the African Americans in our own country, whom we’ve oppressed for years after enslaving them! Sure, there’s not going to be peace on earth, at least for as long as bastards like you keep pulling the levers! Get rid of you and your damned Stark weapons and I can assure you that the rest of the world will sleep easier, at the very least”  
Tony looked shell-shocked and Bruce knew he had gone to far. But before he could have begun to backtrack Tony’s shock had turned into anger.  
“Get the fuck out of my lab.”  
“Tony...”  
“Get the fuck out of here. NOW.”


	3. Something different

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof this is a mess. I probably will edit it? But i don't know? And please give me advice because i hate this but don't know how to make it better

“So, Dr. Banner, you used to work at Stark Technologies? Why did you leave?”  
Bruce winced. He’d prepared for this question, but that didn’t make talking about a fight that ended a 10-year friendship any easier.  
“Uh, mostly a philosophical disagreement with Tony Stark. We’d worked together for years, but he can be a difficult man to deal with sometimes.”  
The interviewer chuckled and her face softened. She must keep up to date on celebrity gossip, because this is a far kinder reaction then he’d expected.  
“Oh, based on what I’ve heard, that’s the understatement of the century. You worked with the man himself?”  
“Yes, we were research partners. I’m more of a gamma expert then an engineer, so I did a lot more of the big picture design, while he would work out the mechanical kinks. I’m hoping to do similar work here.”  
She smiles again.  
“Well, Dr. Banner, if you could keep up with Mr. Stark, I expect you’ll have no trouble here. Can you tell me more about the kind of research you did there?”  
“Well, a fair amount of it is classified, but we mostly worked on the weaponization of gamma, through human enhancement and gamma-based weaponry, mainly bombs.”  
“Wonderful, as you know we focus on the testing and end development of military grade gamma weapons here, so your expertise would be a great asset. In fact, based on your resumé and preformace in previous interviews, I’m glad to be able to offer you a job with a wonderful benefits package.”  
She passed an envelope across the desk, which Bruce opened and started to scan.  
“In fact, this offer is a lot more generous then you’ll be able to get at most places, and we’d like an answer back soon, so take this with you and let us know…”  
Bruce looked up and flashed her a quick smile.  
“I’m happy to accept.”  
****  
And oh, how he prospered there. Sure, he was working for the military, building bombs that he was sure were killing children, but although he hated to admit it to himself, he loved it. The finicky, delicate ways to balance combustion and containment. The minuscule improvements he could make. It was enjoyable in a way he hadn’t experienced since his research work in college. But some small, traitorous part of him missed working in Tony’s lab. He missed the interruptions, the mind just as quick as his to bounce his ideas off. But he pushed that away as much as he could and enjoyed the work.  
One of his favorite parts was the bomb tests. Tony had always waxed poetic on the wonders of explosions, but there’s something about a gamma bomb going off that a burst test tube doesn’t have. He’s been trying to be at every test he can, even those for bombs he wasn’t involved in. Which was why he was there that day.  
The day the bomb fucked up. It wasn’t his, not that that was much comfort. But he saw it, saw the flaw in the diagram as he was watching the explosion. And some part of him, the part that had written to Ross, the part that wanted to be a fucking hero, raced forward to try to shove the techs away. Because the bomb was gonna go off to fast, and they were there, and they didn’t deserve this. They hadn’t cut open some woman while she cried. They hadn’t done anything, and he had and goddammit if someone was going to die it might as well be him and then the bomb went off and there was nothing.  
Nothing but the pain and the rage that ripped through him, tearing all the boundaries he had put up in his mind. He flashed through scene after scene, his father beating him, beating him mother, all those things he had neatly packed away in boxes that he just didn’t open. And he didn’t seem to have a body anymore, at least not one he could control. He reached for it, thrashing blindly in some mental plane he didn’t understand, fighting a green tsunami. And then even the pain was gone, leaving his consciousness. Conscious with no sense, not even pain. That was worse, somehow. Knowing that this green wave had taken his body, his nerves, his very skin and bones from him. Leaving him with an awareness stranded in time.  
And then he had nothing.  
****  
**In a basement in gamma base…**  
The woman lay on the lab table. She was strapped down, so tightly that no matter how much she twitched with every cut she could barely move. She had a muzzle on, the point of which wasn’t quite clear. The man cutting into her was wearing a lab coat covered in blood, and he didn’t seem to register her muffled cries or twitches. He was intent upon his work.  
She heard, although that might be the wrong word, because she was barely conscious after all. Just a sack of flesh and too few organs held together by the demon inside of her that wouldn’t let her go. So, she was aware, in some sense, of the explosion. That wasn’t unusual, she knew this was some sort of military base after all. But there was screaming then, and crashes, and that stirred some long-forgotten part of her brain that asked complicated questions about where she was and when she was leaving. And when the man that was causing the pain suddenly disappeared, leaving her alone, that part of her brain was shouting something at her, something she couldn’t really understand. It would be easier just to sleep now, though, while the pain was gone for a second. To get rid of the pain the remained, however momentarily. And it wasn’t like she really had a choice; blackness was already reaching out to claim her. So sleep she did, as the second hulk broke out of gamma base and ran out across the desert.


	4. What have I done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Tony pov! I've always had a bit of a problem with Yinsen's character in the movies, he's very one note and seems to be just a foil for Tony. I can't write well enough to change that, but I tried.

The Hulk roared at the soldiers, his teeth bared in an expression of pure rage and hate. Tony dropped the newspaper back on the counter with a sigh. He couldn’t fucking deal with this. Not only had he lost his science bro, but he was now a goddamn monster. This sort of thing should not be allowed to happen until he’d consumed enough alcohol to dull fucking everything. He pushed back his chair and headed to the bar to begin that very process.   
Several hours later, he’d found himself building a flying tester while screaming out the lyrics to the sound of music when his phone rang. He grabbed it, intending to hang up, when he saw the caller idea. Ross, that bastard.   
“Jarvis, mute the speakers. General Ross, how goes it? How’s the fam?”  
He could practically hear the scowl through the phone.   
“You know why I’m calling, Stark. We need you to fix it.”  
“Fix what? The fact that your giant green screw up is being broadcast around the country on the front page of the Times? Sorry, I’m a genius but, as Ms. Potts will tell you, that most definitely does not extend to PR.”  
“What I mean, Stark, is that we want you to design a system to catch and restrain it. We’ll pay twice the usual fee if you can get it done before he reaches a civilized area.”  
“You want me to deliver Banner. For your experiments?” Ross sighed.   
“And to make sure he doesn’t hurt any innocents. And you know as well as I do that that isn’t Banner anymore. It’s the same thing that took over that girl. That Hulk.”  
Tony thought for a minute. Ross was right, damn it. But God strike him down if he’d abandon even a former science bro to torture.   
“Fine. But on one condition. I don’t need a double fee, but I keep him. I’ll do the experiments for you.”   
Ross snorted. “Never pegged you for a sentimental type, Stark. But sure. Just get him, and fast.”  
“Alright. I’ve got a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan tomorrow, but I’ll get on this as soon as possible.” Tony hung up without waiting for a reply. Goddamnit, why now? He’d been hoping to celebrate the success of the Jericho missile with several days of drinking and partying, not with designing weapons to hunt down the man who used to be his best friend. He sighed and shook his head. He’d deal with the Jericho presentation now, then with hunting the Hulk.   
And then he woke up in a cave, attached to a car battery. And while he was there, he started to think, despite his best efforts, if this was what it was like for that first hulk. If this was what it was like to wake up and see that someone had been cutting into your body. To know that you are utterly powerless to stop the pain. He remembered a specific segment of Ross’s notes. ‘attempted to discover if the beast will emerge due to fear and/or discomfort. Non-lethal waterboarding was used for a period of 8 hours. Transformation was attempted multiple times, noted due to change in iris coloration. Drugs restrained any further change.’ The first time he’d read that all he’d thought of was enhanced interrogation, those stupid buzzwords so beloved by men like Ross. He hadn’t thought of what this was like, what drowning again and again and gasping so desperately for breath was like. But in that goddamned cave, drowning over and over again he knew what is was. And not even a monster deserved this.   
But there was Yinsen. Who was standing next to him, his sharp eyes watching his welding attempts. He was not awful, most of the time at least. He was, Tony reflected, perhaps his best coworker since his fight with Bruce. Who had just noticed his eyes on him.   
“What is it, Stark?”  
“Just thinking of my previous lab partner, and how you compare to him.”  
“And how is that?”  
“He was quite different from you, in more ways then just the fact that he was a scientist and we were working in a lab, not a cave.”  
“He was? Did you drive him away?”  
And this was what he hated about Yinsen. Because while he was an excellent lab partner, the man could be a real asshole when he felt like it. And Tony could deal with assholes, but Yinsen was an unsettlingly perceptive and accurate asshole.   
“You did, I see. What happened?”  
“Philosophical differences.”  
And Yinsen, damn him, just raised an eyebrow.   
“We had a fight, okay? About an experiment, and politics, and everything about me that you hate about me.”  
Yinsen furrowed his brow. “I don’t hate you, Stark. I hate your creations.”  
“Yeah, whatever. He’s gone now forever now, so what’s the point?”  
“There’s always a point, Stark. And no one is gone forever.”  
“Bruce is.” Tony turned away. He was done with this goddamned conversation. Bruce was gone. Even if he got out of this shithole soon, Bruce was most likely already in Ross’s custody. And if he wasn’t, he still had turned into a brain-dead monster. There was nothing recoverable from that. No way to make up for his mistakes, for his foolish insults.   
“Stark. What happened to him?”  
“None of your business.”  
“None of my business? Stark, none of this is my business. Me being in this cave is because of you. Me being captured was because of you. Them beating me into compliance was because of you. This is all your business, but I’ve gotten dragged into it and I want to know why.”  
“Fine! He turned into a fucking monster, okay? A hulk. Ever heard of that? And it’s my goddamn fault, as is everything in this world, because I pushed him out of my lab and into that fucking bomb building company. And now he’s being hunted by a man both of us hate and honestly, he’s probably already been captured by him and is being dissected in a lab in the middle of buttfuck nowhere!”  
Yinsen looked startled for once. Which was actually pretty satisfying, if he was going to be honest. Tony turned back to his work, ignoring the man.   
But that first discussion started a pattern. Yinsen wanted to know what made him. What caused him to be who he was. And Tony didn’t have the energy to keep ignoring him, because while he was a stubborn ass, Yinsen was even worse.   
And while the talked and argued, they started plotting their escape. A way to blast out of this terrorist den and get a move on. And he had a plan, one that could get them both out to safety.   
But Yinsen, that stubborn self sacrificial ass, had to go and ruin it. So now Tony stood over the slumped form of the man. Yinsen opened one eye.  
“Tony.”  
“Yinsen! Hold on, okay? I'll get you out.”  
“No. I’ll die anyway. Just… remember that you can change, okay? You have a life. Don’t waste it.”  
“Yinsen…”  
“Stark. Go.”  
And he went, god curse him. When he got out of there, he canceled all his weapon building contracts with the army because he would no longer let his tech go to men who thought that torture was okay. He could not keep letting good men, men like Yinsen, get killed by his deigns. And it turns out that that was not a good thing to say, because his relationship with Ross soured enough that the man never spoke to him again.  
He tried, though, to keep the man off Bruce’s tail. He couldn’t keep him safe in the U.S., the military was too invested for that. But he could and did hack into and subsequently deleted the military's flies on his possible locations on a semi regular basis.   
And he did think, again and again, that Bruce seemed to be the same as he was before he was turned. That his brain was clearly whole. And that that meant that the girl was most likely utterly human. But to think that sent down a dark rabbit hole. A hole that led him up to the edge of the roof and that wouldn’t do because he still had so much to make up for that he couldn’t let himself die. Not until he did what Yinsen asked. So he tried to not think about her, about that girl he had cut open while she cried. And he went on.


	5. Finding You Again

Bruce looked at the old man on the mat. He was skinny as hell, with skin a shade that was rarely associated with the living. Bruce wasn’t trained for this. He’d thought about med school, and knew plenty about anatomy and basic first aid, but this man needed a doctor, not some exiled biologist. But there wasn’t a doctor, not one that would come here to help a man who couldn’t pay. There was just him. So he leaned over to the man, and got to work.   
He didn’t know how he had gotten to Kibera. Since the Other Guy had arrived, he had been missing huge chunks of his life. He remembered the pain, the turning, but after that it was blank until he woke up somewhere, missing his clothes and possessions. He didn’t know how many people he’d killed, but he assumed it was far too many. If it was up to him, he’d just go with Ross to stop more people from getting hurt, but the Other Guy had different ideas. And whenever the Other Guy got to express those ideas, Bruce got blank spots. So he tried to stay away, to stay hidden. To keep the Other Guy at bay and to help as many people as he could. He thought about going to Tony for help but getting back to the U.S. seemed an impossible task. He’d tried, though, to keep up to date on all his former friends’ activities. Getting kidnapped, becoming a superhero, resigning as CEO. They all seemed so removed from his life now. He’d worried, obviously, when he learned Tony had been taken captive. But he’d rejoiced to find out he was ending weapons production. It had taken all Bruce’s willpower to keep himself from calling Tony when he found that out. Because he knew that if he called Tony, Ross would find out. And then Ross would find him.   
Bruce tried to learn how to control the green. Breathing techniques worked, to an extent. Drugs helped at first, the hurt. Music was ineffective. Meditation did some, but not enough. Nothing did enough. Nothing prevented the blackouts when Ross found him.   
And Bruce started to despair. How many people had he killed? How many had he hurt? He knew he probably hadn’t come close to making it up with the people he had helped. Was this all he could do? Be an agent of destruction and chaos?   
And every blackout, he spiraled lower. Until one day he was sitting in some shack staring at a gun in his hand. He opened his mouth and closed his eyes. Placed the barrel on his tongue. And pulled the trigger. But all he triggered was another blackout.   
He should have known it wouldn’t work. What was it that Tony had said to him the first day he showed him the woman? It can’t die, actually. Doesn’t regenerate quickly in this form, but the gamma powers the brain activity even when the heart can’t. So even if he managed to keep down the Other Guy, he couldn’t die. Lovely. And in his stupidity, he’d just killed more innocent people. More deaths to atone for.   
Bruce went on. He moved around, found himself in different countries but always the same type of places. The forgotten places. The worst slums. The areas where no one was looking too closely. He tried his best to help while he was there, but there was so little he could do. These people needed so much more then him. But he tried.   
Until a woman came for him. Well, she didn’t come directly. She’d lured him out here, to an abandoned house in an already abandoned town. And was now staring at him.   
“Dr. Banner. I’m Agent Romanoff. From SHIELD.” Bruce looked at her. She didn’t quite seem like the typical government goon, but that didn’t mean her purpose was any less nefarious. He sighed.   
“Are here to kill me, Ms. Romanoff? Because I can assure you, that’s not going to work out well. How many goons are with you?” The woman smiled.   
“Just you and me. And I’d like your help, Dr. Banner. SHIELD needs to track a gamma emission, and you’re the world foremost gamma expert.” Bruce raised a brow, unconvinced.   
“So, you’re not after the monster?”  
“Not that Nick Fury’s told me. He needs you in on this.”   
“He needs me in a cage.” Bruce turned away from her, looking out the window.  
“No one is going to put you in a…”  
“STOP LYING TO ME!” The woman whips out a gun, pointing it at his heart. Fuck. And they were asking nicely, too.   
“Hey. I’m sorry. I just… Why don’t we do this the easy way? You don’t use that, the Other Guy doesn’t make a mess. Okay?” The woman stares at him, then slowly lowers her gun.  
“Stand down.” She says to her earpiece.   
Bruce sighs. “Just you and me, huh?”  
****  
The hellicarier was everything Bruce tried to avoid. Big, loud, filled with people. Things like this would make him stressed before the incident. Now, he could feel the Other Guy pulsing in his temple with every step. He knew this would end badly. He looked around the corridor. Where was he supposed to be heading again? This place was a maze.   
A familiar looking man walked up to him with Agent Romanoff, a serious look on his face.   
“Dr. Banner. I’m Steve Rogers.” And holy fucking shit, Captain America was shaking his hand. He was a monster, and the hero of hero’s was shaking his hand.   
“Captain Rogers. It’s um, nice to meet you. I’m a fan.” And fuck, you don’t say that to Captain America! What the hell was he doing? But Rogers just smiled at him.   
“Word is you can find the Tesseract.”  
“I hope so.” Bruce attempted a smile, feeling his muscles refuse to cooperate. “So, do you know where we ought to go?”  
Rogers gestured with his arm. “Come on, this way.”  
They walked down the hall, stopping at a door that looked all to much like the rest. Rogers opened the door for him. And inside was Nick Fury, the man himself. Bruce had met him before, at a weapons development meeting with Tony. Fury had just sat in the back, glowering the whole time. His expression was, if possible, even grimmer now.   
Nick Fury turned to him. “Dr. Banner. Thank you for coming.”  
“Thanks for asking nicely. So, um, how long am I staying?” This was probably the worst part about the Other Guy. How long he stayed anywhere wasn’t up to him, not anymore. It was up to the men who hunted him and his asshole of an alter ego.   
Fury’s mouth twisted in what was most likely his idea of a smile. “As soon as we get the Tesseract, you’re in the clear.”  
“Yeah. Where are we on that?”   
The smaller man by Fury’s side stepped forward. “We’re sweeping every camera we can access, which is all of them.”  
“I doubt that’ll work. How many spectrometers do you have access to? Get them all up and calibrated to gamma radiation. I’ll start on a tracking algorithm.” And god how he loved this. This hunt, looking at the gibberish of data and creating a tool to sort it. It was like touching the controls of the universe.   
Fury nodded. “Romanoff, escort Dr. Banner to his lab. Coulson, get started on the spectrometers.”  
Romanoff appeared from…somewhere? She took Bruce’s arm, and started to lead him out of the room. “Lab’s state of the art, Doc. You’ll love it.”   
He grinned. “I’m sure I will. But if you’re on ‘doc’ level with me, it’d be nice to have something to call you other then Agent Romanoff.”  
She laughed. He hadn’t thought she could. “The name’s Natasha. Get the Tesseract, and I’ll consider letting you call me by it.”   
Bruce felt himself relaxing for the first time since seeing Romanoff in the room. This wasn’t going badly at all. And he might even be able to find out a way to stop running after this. Romanoff opened the door to the lab, and he walked in. And there, sitting by a table, was Tony Fucking Stark.


	6. This Ain't It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is weird, and I half hate it and half think it's my best chapter yet. It's not how I normally write at all, but I liked writing like this.

She hadn’t meant to break. She’d tried not to. She’d fought, at first. Punched and kicked and tried her hardest to get free of the bonds and the drugs and that goddamned collar. She’d spit on them and screamed at them. And if they’d yelled back or punched her or gotten angry she would have just taken strength from that. But they didn’t. When she kicked at them, they just tied her down. When she tried to punch them from her cage, they started to keep her tied up in there. When she spit or yelled, they put a fucking muzzle on her, like a dog. When she pulled at the collar, they just had it shock her. They didn’t fight back. They managed her, like she was a lab rat. Like a fucking animal. Collared and muzzled like a dog, except you’d be arrested if you treated a dog like this. Kept in a cage that she could barely fit in. Forced to shit and piss there, although she did try to save that for when she was on the lab table. Hatred could have been fought, but how can you fight total disinterest? When every action just results in more of your freedom and dignity being taken away? She told herself it was okay, that she didn’t need to literally fight to resist, she could just resist in her head. Just keep herself alive. She tried to keep her breath even while they were experimenting on her. Tried to breath through the pain, the way her doctor had taught her to do with migraines. She recited poems in her head, whatever odd scraps had stuck from high school English. Then songs, then books. But they just went on. It seemed to never stop, like there was always some anonymous lab tech cutting into her. And she couldn’t keep going, couldn’t stay in her head with her songs. She then decided that she didn’t have to stay in her body, she just had to keep some part of herself. She retreated into some far-off part of her, a mini world where the pain just wasn’t as bad. She told herself that this wasn’t giving up, this was strategic resistance. Give them the unthinking animal they want and keep yourself safe. Safe for what she wasn’t sure. She’d read a bit about ptsd in college and was sure she must have it by now. Solitary confinement could fuck someone up in just a few days, right? She thought she’d been there for a good deal more than that, although she had no idea how long. And while her body healed incredibly quickly, she knew that there still must be damage from the horrifying things they did to her deep inside. She could regenerate her stomach, but she doubted it was as good as the original. If she ever got rescued, she’d be a mess. But maybe if she kept some part of herself away, she’d be repairable.   
When she was moved, she was barely aware of it at first. She’d retreated deep inside herself long ago by then. But eventually, some part of her brain managed to tell her that something was wrong, and to push her into surfacing to check it out. Which is how she found herself lying on a mattress in a room. Which set off several alarms.   
Because one, a mattress? With the military, she’d just slept curled up on the floor. Why would you give a mattress to an animal, after all? She poked the mattress experimentally. This was certainly an upgrade, though, so she wasn’t complaining.   
But she was also in a room. A small, bare, room, but not a cage. The mattress could easily be explained away as the work of a somewhat compassionate scientist, but the room would never have been excepted by Ross. A waste of resources, he would have called it. False humanization. Why give a lab rat a toilet? Which this room did have. A toilet set into the ground, but it was there. And weren’t squat toilets common in some parts of the world? Not that she would care, really, just not having to sleep where she shits would be nice. But maybe she’d been given to some other organization, somewhere she’d be treated like a human?   
She squashed that thought as soon as she could. If she’d been rescued, she wouldn’t still have the collar. She wouldn’t be in a room with a glass wall for observation. Someone would be there to explain this whole thing to her. No, she was most likely just in some other department. Same torture, different housing.   
That was confirmed later, when a man appeared in front of the glass wall. He eyed a remote control in his hand, then pressed a button, turning that fucking collar up to full voltage. She seized, her mind going white with pain. When she came to, she was strapped onto a lab table, a scalpel cutting into her skin. So much for a better organization. At least she wasn’t wearing a muzzle.   
There seem to be less scientist here then before, though. The man who “operated” on her seemed to always be the same. But there was a second man, one who never hurt her. He’d draw blood, sure, but that wasn’t bad at all. He’d look at her sadly sometimes, as though regretting that she was there. She decided that she liked him much better than the man who tortured her.   
The one interesting thing about this new place was that when the man was cutting her, he took her into a lab filled with computer monitors. She could see his research on the screen. Sometimes, though, she saw newspapers or some unidentifiable site. She started trying to read these during the session, attempting to glean what information she could. It worked better as a method of distracting herself from the pain then a method of gaining information, though. All she had managed to really learn was that Ellen DeGeneres was still with Portia. At least it was good news?   
But one day a monitor was turned to the NYTimes. She strained to see it. And fucking hell. Presidential primaries where going on? The democratic one was a black man vs Hillary Clinton? And the date was April 10th, 2008. 2008. Holy Fucking Shit. 2008. She had turned 23. She would turn 24 in a few months.   
She’d been in captivity for just over 2 years.   
At least Bush wasn’t gonna be president for much longer.   
But fuck. 2 years of her life. Roughly 10%. Just over 1/11th.   
She barely noticed that he’d finished with her, that she was being rolled back to her room. She just sat there because 2 years is a long ass time.   
When she came back to herself again, the new cuts had all healed. There were tears rolling down her face. And a man, the kinder man, was crouched by the glass, talking to her.   
She leapt backwards. Fuck, what now? What was he gonna do to her? Had she been making too much noise? She huddled in the corner, refusing to look at him. After what felt like an eternity, he went away. Only to come back almost instantly. He opened the little flap that they gave her food through and pushed some things through. She only let herself look when he had left. And then saw it was a Rubik’s cube. A Rubik’s cube. Just what everyone who’s suffered a mental breakdown due to being held captive for years needs. She tried to swallow back the hysterical laughter, but it just spilled up until she was lying on the floor shaking with what could have been laughter or sobs. At which point, she decided to do that Rubik cube, because why the fuck not?


	7. Thor has joined the party

Tony started when Bruce came in. Romanoff turned to him.  
“Mr. Stark, this is Dr. Banner. I’m sure you know him.”  
Stark glared at her. “I’m sure you know I know him, seeing as he was in my employ for several years.” He turned to Bruce, looking a tad abashed. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”  
“Yes.” Bruce didn’t know what else to say. Hey, sorry I called you a murder? Sucks that you were held captive and tortured? How’s being a superhero? None of those seemed appropriate. He settled for “It’ll be nice to work together again.”  
Tony looked relived, probably glad Bruce hadn’t picked one of the former options. “It sure will. So, how do you think we ought to start?”  
“I’ve got them getting spectrometer data for us. We need to write an algorithm to sort it.”  
Tony nodded. “I’ve got copies of Selvig’s records, they have the Tesseract’s normal gamma output. You get started on the algorithm, use stand ins for now. I’ll look through his data table.”   
They’d finished the algorithm easily, and were now sitting in silence. Tony kept sneaking glances at Bruce, which Bruce pretended to not see. He wasn’t going to start this conversation.   
Tony eventually gave in. “She completed the Rubik’s cube you gave her.” He looked over at Bruce. “You were right.”  
Bruce nodded. “I… wasn’t sure, honestly. I think I gave her the cube as a kind of test. But… when I was taking samples from her” and why can he not say that without almost crying even now? “She clearly had human feelings, if not thoughts. She’d seemed so betrayed. Were you able to get her back?”  
Tony winced. “No. I… look, I tried to look for her but Ross, he’d never give her up, not once I stopped making weapons and it was just to fucking hard to think about. I focused on other things.”  
“Like?”  
“Keeping Ross off your tail, for one. I deleted his files on you.”  
Bruce’s eye’s widened. He hadn’t know that. “Um. Thank you. I guess I must have been a worse fugitive then I realized.”  
Tony snorted. “Or hiding from the entire U.S. military is hard. They had a hell of a lot of people looking for you.”   
“Trying to make a weapon out of me.”  
Tony shrugged. “That too. Those fuckers want to weaponize everything.”  
There was a loud bing sound then, and data started flooding Tony’s monitor. He looked at it and let out a loud whistle. “These fuckers too, I guess.”  
“Fury? Is he weaponizing the Tesseract?” Bruce felt a spike of alarm. He was helping the wrong guys again?  
“Bingo! Him and the World Security Council. Tell you what, Bruce. Let’s do the world a favor and delete these files?”  
“Delete what files?” The voice came from the door, where Rogers had reappeared. Tony just waved him away.   
“Nothing you need to worry about, boy scout. Just some stuff Fury doesn’t need.”  
Rogers gave them a look that made Bruce shrink. Captain America being disappointed in him was a new low. “You have no business hacking Fury’s files.”  
Stark just laughed. “Do you even know what he’s doing with the Tesseract? Or are you just being a good little solider boy?” Rogers bristled, but Tony went on. “He’s using it to build weapons. Weapons that could destroy whole worlds. What do you think of that, huh?”  
“I think that it’s called planning ahead.” Nick Fury had come in, unnoticed to them. Romanoff was with him. “Glad to see you’ve been busy, Stark. Have you also worked on finding the Tesseract, or was hacking me just too tempting?”   
“Fury! Good to see you to.” And how Tony could be so uncowed in the face of an angry Nick Fury, Bruce would love to know. “Just looking around. We’re not a big enough force for you, huh? Need to make a bomb bigger than that?”   
Fury quirked an eyebrow. “Actually, I was going to tell you that there’s been a sighting of Loki. But, if you’d prefer to stay here and bluster, I’m not gonna stop you.”   
Tony turned to Rogers, a huge grin on his face. “Time to suit up!” he all but shouted, before running out. Rogers sighed and followed.   
Romanoff turned to him, a smile on her face. “Well, looks like you didn’t find it, Doc. Upstaged by a guy with a cellphone.”  
Bruce have a wry laugh. “Who hasn’t been, at this point? I’m sure my ego can survive the hit.”   
Romanoff looked at him. “I have to say, you don’t seem particularly driven by your ego.”  
“Compared to Tony? Certainly. But it was just a joke.”  
Romanoff gave him a withering look. “I am aware.” She seemed to take pity after sensing his discomfort. “Who’s the woman who you and Stark were talking about?”  
Well, maybe not. Bruce had no clue what to say to her. Just some girl we tortured a few years ago? Even with his rusty social skills, Bruce knew that that would be a bad thing to say. Romanoff noticed his silence.   
“Would it be, by any chance, the woman who you studied for Ross?”  
Fuck. How did she know? Stupid question, she worked for Fury. “Yes. We were talking about how we regretted that.”  
She seemed about to speak but paused, studying him. The silence was extremely uncomfortable. She finally tilted back her head and said “I could help you make amends.”  
Bruce stared, open mouthed. How could she do that? Was the girl with SHEILD now? Did she hate them?   
But before he could answer any of those important questions Fury burst in. He eyed Bruce before turning to Romanoff. “Loki’s been captured by Stark and Rogers. You wanna question him?”  
Romanoff grinned. “Gladly. Dr. Banner, I look forward to continuing our conversation.” She and Fury walked out, leaving Bruce alone with his thoughts. He wasn’t alone for more then a few seconds, though, as Tony burst in, flush with the glory of battle.   
“Bruce! The fight was awesome, you should’ve seen it! Loki’s brother showed up and tried to blast me with lighting, but it just supercharged the suit! So I blasted him back, and BOOM! It was crazy!”   
Bruce looked up. “Loki’s…brother? There’s more of them?”  
“Fear not, Doctor. I am not on my brother’s side.” This came from a tall, blond man, who had entered behind Tony. He was, Bruce thought, the most attractive man he’d ever seen. Well, make that most attractive god, if this man was Loki’s brother. And about that, what?   
Tony must have noticed some of Bruce’s confusion because he gestured towards the man. “Bruce, this is Thor, aka point break and Loki’s brother.”   
Thor nodded gravely. “I deeply apologize for my brother’s actions.”  
Tony snorted. “Eh, I don’t think there’s much you could do. Loki’s a crazy motherfucker.”  
Thor gave Tony a look. “Be careful how you speak, friend, for Loki my be mad but he is still my brother.”  
Bruce felt obligated to speak up at this point. “He’s killed 80 people in 2 days.”   
Thor winced. “He’s adopted.”  
Bruce really had no clue what to say to that, because what? God’s adopt kids? Bruce didn’t know much about norse mythology, but he was pretty sure that Thor’s father was Odin the Allfather, and Odin did not seem like an adoption kinda guy.   
This train of thought was interrupted by Tony saying “Hey, where’d Natasha go?”   
“She’s off to question Loki.”  
A wicked grin spread across Tony’s face. “Oh, I want to see this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly ship Bruce with everyone, but I think this Bruce is probably better with Steve or Thor. But whoever he'll end up with, Chris Hemsworth is hot as fuck.


	8. Fight On

The monitor showed Loki in circular cell on some kind. Fury and Romanoff were next to him.   
Fury walked to the control panel of the cell, then looked at Loki. “In case it’s unclear. If you ty to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass,” He pressed a few buttons on the panel, making a door open beneath the cell “You are going down. You are an ant. And this, is the boot.”  
Loki laughed. “Impressive cage. Not built for me, though.”  
Fury grinned back. “Built for someone a lot stronger than you.”  
Bruce sat back, sighing. “No one’s gonna put you in a cage, they said.”   
Tony turned to him. “I won’t let them.”  
Bruce looked at Tony. He trusted the man as much as he trusted anyone, but he wasn’t sure what Tony could actually do.   
He turned his attention back to the screen. Loki was still smirking, god know why. “It burns you to have come so close. To think you have unlimited power, but then to be reminded what real power is.”  
Fury was smiling in a way that boded great sadness for Loki. He snorted, and said “Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something.”   
Tony turned. “Hey, Point Break. Got any idea what your brother’s plan is?”  
“He has an army. The chitaru. How he means to get them here I know not.”  
Bruce nodded. “A portal, probably. He opened one at SHIELD earlier, didn’t he?”  
“But it collapsed, quickly.” Tony paused, clearly thinking. “Oh. That’s why he took Selvig. He needs him to stabilize the portal.”   
“They’ll need Iridium for that. That’s probably what Loki was looking for.”   
“yeah, probably .” Tony looked over at the monitor. “Hey, Natasha’s taking a turn him. I wanna see this.”   
Romanoff was standing in front of Loki. She seemed softer than normal, scared.   
Loki was smiling. “I’d figured you’d come, agent. But not now. Later, after Fury was done with his tortures. What are you here for?”  
“I want to know what you’ve done to Clint.”  
Loki laughed. “I’ve simply expanded his mind. He sees more clearly now, doesn’t he?”  
“When you win… what will happen to him, to his mind?”  
“Why, Agent Romanoff. Is this love?”  
She shook her head. “I owe him a debt, and I intend to repay it.”  
“A debt. I think you owe many more people then just him a debt. You are a liar and a killer, who serves liars and killers. Do you truly think switching sides has made any difference?” Loki shook his head, smirking. “No, I think you know it won’t. You sit here in this flying ship, locking up a man who has come to save you and letting a beast roam freely. Do you think that is right?”  
But Loki said these last words to nothing, as Romanoff was already walking away. She said into her earpiece, “He’s making a play for Banner.” She turned to Loki and smiled. “Thank you for your cooperation.”  
Back in the lab, Tony was staring at the screen, mouth open. He turned to Bruce and said “Fuck! She’s insane, man. Did she pull that on you to get you to come?”  
“Not exactly.”  
Tony wasn’t really listening “I mean, I thought she was for real. That look on her face… fuck, I wish I could do that!”  
Rogers stepped up, frowning. “Stark. This is not the time. We need to make sure that Dr. Banner is safe from whatever Loki is planning, that’s our first priority.”  
Tony laughed. “Bruce is safe? Come on. Bruce, don’t you want to join us? Come and fight the bad guys? Stop being such a stick in the mud, Cap’n Crunch. I know you’re looking forward to suiting up just as much as me.”   
“Really, Stark? Suiting up? That’s all you care about, isn’t it? Playing around with all your techy toys. Take away that, what are you?”  
Tony stared. “What am I? Really? You’re the guy who was made in a bottle, Rogers. Take that away and you are nothing.”   
Rogers took a step forward. “You don’t know anything about me, Stark. I’ve given up everything before. You? You’d never be the guy to lay down on the wire.”   
Stark smiled. “Well, I think I’d just cut the wire.”  
“ENOUGH.” Unbeknownst to them, Fury and Romanoff had walked in.   
Fury looked at Bruce. “Captain Rogers is right. We need to make sure you are safe from whatever Loki’s planning. Romanoff, would you take Dr. Ban”   
“Where? You rented out my room!”  
“We never intended to use that, Doctor. It was just a precaution to protect you.”  
“Protect me from WHAT? You can’t kill me, I’ve tried.” At a gasp from Tony, Bruce was suddenly aware he had an audience. He’d have to explain. “I got low. Put a bullet in my mouth, the Other Guy spit it out.” He looked Fury in the eye, suddenly full of rage again. “You want to know my secret, huh? How I keep control? I’ll show you my secret, then.”   
Fury held up a hand, which, Bruce realized, had a gun in it. He seemed scared. Bruce suddenly realized he’d picked up the scepter Tony had brought in. He carefully put in down.   
“Well, guess you don’t get to see my party trick, kids.” Bruce walked back over to his monitor, hoping to pretend none of that had happened. No such luck.   
As soon as Fury had walked out, Tony came over. His face was white.  
With a tremor in his voice, he said “You tried to kill yourself, Bruce? Why?”  
Bruce didn’t know how to answer that one. He knew the reasons, of course. Because he was a monster. Because he couldn’t help hurting people. Because it would be better for the world if he was gone. He just didn’t know how to say any of that to Tony.   
Luckily, he was spared having to answer by a blast that rocked the room. Tony cursed; eyes wide. He raced out of the room with hardly a backwards glance, Roger following close behind.   
Romanoff turned to him. She looked wary, and Bruce had the sense that it wasn’t fake this time. But before she could say anything, a second blast rocked the room, throwing them to the floor and some heavy machinery on top of them.   
And God it hurt. He was sure one of his legs was broken. Romanoff was more agile then him and seemed to be fine. He doubted that would last for long, though. Beneath the pain, he could feel the green rushing through him.   
Romanoff reached out, desperate. “Bruce. Control it, okay? Listen to my voice. You can’t let him take over, not now. Just stay in control, I’ve got some sedatives, okay? As soon as I wriggle out, I can give them to you.”  
Bruce gasped, trying to hold off the green and the pain. “Run, Natasha. RUN. I can’t hold him; you need to go NOW.”  
She seemed to try, redoubling her efforts. But his vision was starting to go then, and then he saw no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a thing. Please give comments & kudos bc I desperately need affirmation via the internet.


	9. Home Again

Bruce looked around the shawarma place. It was a fucking mess. God knows why it was even open. He snorted. If a God knew, he should ask Thor. He still wasn’t over the whole actual God thing. He’d been agnostic since his teenage years, and now he’s eating shawarma with a God. He didn’t know what he was now.   
Tony was looking at him across the table. Bruce focused back on his plate to avoid Tony’s eyes. He knew that the other man had questions, and that he deserved answers. Bruce just wasn’t quite ready to give those answers. He still had to talk to Natasha and figure out what happened and do a million other things before he was ready for that.   
But Tony was, as always, hard to avoid. He cornered Bruce when they were all leaving. Tony’s eyes were steel as he said, “You’re coming to stay with me at Stark Tower.”  
Bruce blinked at him. This was unexpected. “Do I get a choice?”  
Tony grinned. “No. Now come.”  
Bruce went. It could be worse.   
The drive over was filled with Tony’s chatter. He told Bruce about all the cool things that R&D had, his personal labs, the labs he could make for Bruce, and the like. But every time he paused in his rant, he tried to sneak a look at Bruce. Bruce saw this easily, as Tony was really painfully obvious. Subtlety was sadly not part of Tony’s genius.   
He thought he knew what Tony wanted to ask, too. But when Tony finally asked it, it was still uncomfortable.   
They’d stopped at a red light when Tony finally said “Bruce. Why did you try to kill yourself?”  
And wow, subtlety was REALLY not Tony’s thing. Bruce sighed. “Honestly, Tony? Because… because I thought that all I did was make the world a worse place. And that I’d be better gone then around hurting people.”  
To Bruce’s surprise, Tony just nodded. They sat in silence for a moment. Then Tony spoke up. “You know, they looked into how many people you’d killed as the Hulk.”  
Bruce winced. “I’d rather not know, if it’s all the same to you.”  
“But here’s the thing, Bruce. You didn’t kill anyone. Beat people up, sure. But kill? No.”  
Bruce didn’t even know what to say to that. He hadn’t killed anyone at all? But Ross had said that he was a murderous monster. That he’d killed over 100 soldiers. That he ought to be stopped at any cost. And while he knew Ross didn’t give a shit about the truth, it just seemed so incredibly unlikely that he’d somehow not killed anyone. Honestly, he’d absorbed it into his psyche at this point. Bruce Banner=Murderer.   
Tony clearly sensed his uncertainty. “I’m serious, Bruce. You haven’t killed anyone. I don’t know how, to be honest. They think you were holding him back. I mean, he didn’t hurt any of us when we were fighting. So maybe your morals and desires drive him somehow?” Tony’s eyes lit up. “We could experiment on it at the tower! I think it’d be fun. Hook you up to some stuff, analyze your brainwaves. Dunno how we’d get the Other Guy to lie still in an MRI, but I’m sure we could work something out. Anyway, that’s just one idea…” Tony went on, elaborating on more and more crazy experimental plans. The rest of the drive to the tower passed quickly. But right before they got out of the car, Tony turned to Bruce and said, “You know, it’d break my heart if you killed yourself.”   
They held eye contact for a minute, before Tony opened the door and got out. Bruce followed him into an elevator, where Tony spoke to the A.I. that ran the place, telling it to take him and Bruce to the top floors.   
“Those are the residential floors, for me and Pepper and whoever’s staying with us.”  
“Pepper’s still around? Oh, it’ll be nice to see her again.”  
Tony grinned. “Yeah, I sorta forgot you knew her! But ummm… we’re dating now.”  
Bruce laughed. “Really? I mean, that’s great. But I’m surprised. You always had chemistry, but I never thought it’d happen.”  
“Well, it did. Anyway, we’ve got a whole guest suit already set up, but… well, I should just say it. I’m trying to get all us ‘avengers’ to move here, at least part time. So, I’m planning a whole few floors for that, with each of you getting an apartment. So I could make yours first, if you want to stay here for more then a few days I mean.” Tony looked deeply awkward, so much so that Bruce couldn’t help but laugh.   
“Tony, that’s an incredibly generous offer. I don’t have anywhere else to be, so I’ll definitely accept.”  
Tony looked so relived Bruce almost laughed again. “Great! I’ll show you the guest suit for now.”   
The guest suit was the most luxurious set of rooms Bruce had been in since he last worked with Stark. There was a bed larger than some rooms he’d slept in, with a blanket that looked like it was made of cashmere. A desk with a state-of-the-art computer that Bruce couldn’t wait to check out. And the rug on the floor was so soft he could feel it through his shoes.   
Tony was going on about how he knew this wasn’t much but hoped it would be good for now when Bruce turned to him, eyes wet.   
“Thank you, Tony. This is perfect.” And then, despite both his and Tony’s general dislike of touchy-feely stuff, he wrapped Tony in a hug.   
Tony wriggled for a minute, muttering about how this was unnecessary and awkward, before giving in a hugging Bruce back. When Bruce let go, Tony adjusted his clothes while subtly wiping his eyes for a minute. The he looked up and smiled at Bruce.   
“To the labs?”   
And how could Bruce say anything but yes?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So while I was writing this chapter, a friend of mine attempted suicide. It was a very scary thing, and I honestly thought he was dead for a few hours until we found him. But so this chapter was weird to end, and I don't think I did it very well. But I hope it's okay, and I probably won't post any new chapters next weekend sorry.


	10. Hi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not super into the way this story is working, so I think I'm just posting this last chapter (it's really 2 chapters) and then going to start rewriting this as another story that focuses more on the 3 main characters.

Chapter 10   
Natasha stared across the table at Bruce. Bruce winced, but managed to meet her eyes. He didn’t have a lot of experience talking to people his alter ego attempted to kill, but he tried to summon up a smile. “So. You were going to tell me something about the woman when we were on the hellicarier, before we were so rudely interrupted.”  
Natasha smirked at him. “Before you turned into Hulk and tried to smash me?”  
Oof. “Yes. Sorry.”  
She waved her hand. “Eh, all water under the bridge. But you are right, I did invite you here to talk about her.” Bruce nodded. “But this is a bit complicated, yes? So while I can give you information about her, and I will support the actions that I think you will take, I can’t directly help you.”  
“So, this is a bit cloak and dagger?”  
Natasha rolled her eyes. “God, Tony better not rub off on you. But yes.” She rummaged in her bag, pulling out a thick file. “This is a current report on her situation. She’s currently with Ross, in the new gamma base. I’d suggest you don’t go there.”  
Bruce took the file. “May I ask how you learned about her?”  
Natasha nodded. “We were considering her for the avengers initiative. I got into gamma base undercover. Ross refused to let us use her, though.”  
“And you… objected to that situation. Her situation.”  
“No shit, sherlock. I used to work for the red room, in Russia. Clint… he rescued me. And then I find out that your Ross’s experiments would fit in in the red room? I talked to Fury. He said that there was nothing we could do. So, I’ve been looking into her. Trying to find out who, if anyone, would help her.”  
“You thought Tony and I would.”  
“Won’t you?”  
“Yes.”  
Natasha smiled and it seemed real, this time. “Good.” They sat in silence for a few more minutes, before she stood. “See you around, then.”   
“See you.”  
Bruce found a comfortable seat in his room and opened the file. It started with an index, a long one. He had always liked a good index. This was not a good index. But where to start? Sadly, the file was missing a section on locations of secrete government labs and tips for rescuing people from them, so he figured the beginning was as good a place as any.   
A couple of pages in, he had already learned a lot. The woman’s name was Robin Stafford, the daughter of Natalia Stafford and Jonatan Stafford, born in Bangor, Main. Her blood type was o+. she’d been 22 at the time of the accident, and a student at Northwestern, pursuing a doctorate after finishing her undergrad. She’d been up to date on all her vaccinations and had recently had a physical. She had a 4.0 average for her undergrad, got a prestigious internship at NASA before this disastrous internship, and had possible far left connections. The accident had occurred in 2006, due to exploding frog bits getting into her bloodstream and hijacking her cellular processes. It seemed like the report would continue in this vein for a bit, so Bruce took the liberty of flipping ahead, seeing bits and pieces as he went by. subject noncompliant, multiple shocks administered… subject attempted escape, had to be restrained…multiple organ removal attempted to study regeneration…the hulks skin requires several tons of force to pierce…subject appeared to experience a sort of psychiatric breakdown… . God, this was depressing. And knowing that if Ross had got him, it would have been worse just made the whole thing more horrifying. He sighed, shaking his head. No use thinking about that, not now that he’s safe. He should take a break. He shoved the dossier away and stood, looking down one final time, when he saw subject was transferred to Stark’s care, transport protocols as detail on page 45 were used. Bruce sat back down almost instantly, thrilled to have a lead.   
Two hours later, he was wishing he’d taken the break. He’d found no real clues, only a couple of vague hints. It stated that transport had to have air conditioning, so he was guessing it was somewhere hot, probably the southern U.S. because it also mentioned driving, not flying. It was definitely a regular military base, because it was clear that most people working there were ordinary troops and scientists who didn’t have clearance to know about the hulk. There were multiple mentions of code words and secret signals. But there were around 40 army bases in the southern U.S., and it wasn’t even necessarily in the south. And since breaking into army bases is generally frowned on, just testing them seemed out. He didn’t think Tony’s influence and the clout he had as a hero could save him after a smashing into 40 some bases. He sighed and stood up, cracking his back. Time to take a break, for real this time.   
Tony was in the main kitchen, drinking coffee while reading the latest issue of science. He looked up when Bruce walked in, a grin on his face.   
“Brucie bear! Got caught up in science again?”  
“Um, sort of?”  
“New project? Do tell!”  
Bruce awkwardly shrugged. “It’s just…Natasha asked me to find something for her.”  
“The super spy asked YOU to find someone!?”  
“Uh, well more like help someone? But she doesn’t know where they are. Also, the first time she met me she asked me to find someone, why are you so doubtful?”  
“I’m assuming this someone itsn’t carrying an artifact with a massive gamma emission.”  
“I mean, yeah. But it is someone we have a… personal connection with.”   
“We? Who is it?”  
“Robin Stafford. The girl we, um, experimented on? Tortured? I don’t know how to put it, but Natasha knows about her and wanted us to rescue her.”  
Tony nodded slowly. “Well, I’m in favor. Know where she is yet?”  
“I’ve narrowed it down, but not really. She’s probably in an military base in the south, and it’s most likely one that also has normal soldiers and scientists working. That narrows it down to about 40 options, but I’m not sure where to go from there.”  
Tony laughed. “Well, I do. When I stopped making weapons, I didn’t totally end my dealings with the military. All of the cyber security programs that they use are Stark products. And those, well, the ones I sold to the army at least, all give me access to the administrative functions so I can access both regular and encrypted files. Give me an hour, I’ll check the bases to try and see what I can find.”  
Bruce nodded, then paused. “If you can do this, why haven’t you before?”  
Tony seemed about to snark off, but paused. “I, well, because. Because I…” He looked down and sighed. “Because I can’t think about her, without thinking about Afganistan. What they did to me… Bruce, I did worse to her the fucking Ten Rings did to me. And I can’t think that, because thinking to much about that’s going to lead me up to the room, and I won’t come down the traditional way, okay? And I can’t do that.” He looked up, but not at Bruce. “I have too much left to make up for. I have too many people left to help. I can’t die yet.” He looked up at Bruce, then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’ll be back in a bit. Eat some dinner!”   
And he dashed down the stairs before Bruce could say anything. Leaving Bruce alone and mildly horrified.   
Chapter 11  
Natasha eyed Bruce and Tony doubtfully. “You sure this is the one? It seems a bit too obvious.”  
Tony raised an eyebrow. “You really think I’d fuck around with this? Look, I’ve even got videos with location tags, I’ll show them to you.”  
Bruce nodded. “Please, Natasha. We aren’t asking you to risk anything, we just want you to sneak around a bit to double check while you’re there with Fury.”  
She sighed. “Look, it’s not that I’m worried about Fury catching me. I just don’t want to risk tipping them off to your plan. And honestly, breaking into a military base doesn’t seem like something that even the ‘avengers’ could get away with.”  
“TONY STARK! What the hell are you doing?” Pepper Potts walked in, seeming ready to punch Tony. “Breaking into a military base? Do you have some desire to ruin your company? And how do you think I’ll feel about you being in jail?”  
“Happy?”   
Pepper ignored that, turning to Natasha. “Agent Romanoff. Do you mind telling me what hairbrained scheme my boyfriend wants you to participate in?”  
Seeing that Natasha was uncomfortable, Bruce tried to intercede. “Pepper, trust me, it’s not a dumb idea, it’s a rescue mission!”  
Pepper turned her fiery gaze on him. “Bruce, I expected better from you. I should’ve known Tony would drag you into whatever science nonsense this is.”  
“Ms. Potts, it was my idea, actually. It really is a rescue plan.”   
Pepper look at Natasha for a moment, before nodding. “Well, I suppose I should let you explain.”  
She nodded. “Bruce, well, he wasn’t the first Hulk. There was a woman, in 2006. Different accident, but she also was exposed to high quantities of gamma. But she wasn’t as lucky as Bruce.” Natasha paused here for a moment, giving Bruce an awkward look. “Bruce escaped following his first transformation. Fury knew him from before, and knew he could be a good asset. He directed SHEILD to subtely distract the army. And when SHEILD couldn’t-“  
“I did!” Tony was grinning, as proud as a kid on his birthday. Natasha rolled her eyes.   
“Yep, Tony deleted all of Ross’s files on Bruce. This girl-“  
“Robin Stafford.”   
“Yes. She was captured following her first transformation and has been in custody ever since.”   
Pepper nodded. “So, why do you three want to rescue her so much that you’re willing to commit treason?”  
Natasha caught Bruce’s eye. It was his turn now. He swallowed hard and stepped forward. “When Tony and I were working on the serum, Ross said he had a test subject that might help us. His men delivered her, heavily sedated and wrapped in chains, wearing a muzzle and a shock collar. He told us she was an animal, a mindless beast. That the accident had destroyed her brain. We believe him.”  
“I believed him.” Tony’s voice waverd. “Bruce wasn’t sure, didn’t want to hurt her but I pressured and bullied him into it.”  
“No. I believed him, too. I just was freaked out by the idea of cutting into a live human body without anesthesia. If I’d thought she was truly human, I wouldn’t have let any of it happen. And we both led the experiments.”  
“What kind of experiments?”   
Bruce winced. “Tissue samples. Organ samples. Blood samples. Ross told us to take them without anesthesia, because the amount needed would pollute the sample. That was true, by the way. The gamma gave her a crazy metabolism, same as it did me. But that doesn’t make it okay.” He took off his glasses and wiped them, trying to calm himself. “But anyway. I realized, I guess, that she was at least somewhat human still. And I was stupid, and thought Ross just must not know. So, I sent him a email, saying we couldn’t experiment on her anymore. Half an hour later, his goons came to take her back, Tony got mad, and we went separate ways.”  
Pepper seemed surprisingly calm about all this and had taken a notebook out at some point. “Agent, do you know anything more then that?”  
Natasha nodded. “Ross definitely knows she’s human. The man has a strong sadistic streak and believes that chaos must be stopped. I think that he’s justifying it, to both himself and others, as a necessary sacrifice to maintain order. He’s gotten scientist that are just as twisted as him on board and has been experimenting on her for years. Fury wanted her for the avengers, but Ross is very territorial and refused. Also, I don’t think he wanted us to know the condition she was in.”  
Pepper nodded. “Rescuing her seems all well and good, but why the hell were you going to break in? I think that the legal department should be able to handle this.” Pepper looked at the bewildered faces. “Look, it’s simple. If we frame it as we could have had a second Hulk to fight the Chitaru, and Ross wouldn’t let us, we can make him look negligent. People sympathize with Bruce as well, and if we show what Ross wanted to do to him, we can get public opinion on our side. Ross gave her to you before, there’s no reason he shouldn’t again.”   
Tony stared at her. “Holy shit, my girlfriend is a fucking genius!”  
Pepper smiled. “You just realized?”   
Tony chose not to respond to that, instead pulling Pepper into a deep kiss. Bruce looked away, embarrassed. Natasha caught his eye and smirked. “Have they always been like this?”   
Bruce shrugged. “They weren’t together in 2008. But based on what I’ve seen since the fight… yes.”


End file.
